RIO HONDO — Lt. Col. Clifford Moriarty was celebrating his 50th birthday and doing what he likes to do — training future Air Force officers.
What was supposed to be a great day for him turned out to be a day that just got worse by the minute.
Moriarty was flying a small engine airplane performing flight patterns with a Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps student he was training in northern Virginia.
At the same time, one of the darkest days in American history was playing out in New York.
Hijackers had rammed jetliners into the World Trade Center towers. Unbelievable flaming holes were causing the towers to tremble.
Moriarty remembers the horror like it was yesterday.
He was flying with a flight student who just happened to be a Muslim.
The student was not from any of the countries involved in the attacks on the towers and the Pentagon.
They were flying at an altitude of 1,500 feet when they were radioed to come back down.
“We were recalled to land the airplane, as was every airplane that was airborne at that time,” he said. “I turned 50 years old on the day of 9/11.”
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